It’s been another long but successful year for Irish golf and this week will see the last tee shots being struck, the last divots taken and pitch marks repaired as our touring professionals round off their campaigns.
The DP World Tour completes the opening swing in Mauritius as it ends 2024 with the conclusion of the first part of the 2025 season – yes that is confusing – while Ladies European Tour and Asian Tour Q-Schools reach their climax as several Irish look to secure status for next year.
DP World Tour
Conor Purcell will hope to end a breakthrough year on a high as he makes his second DP World Tour appearance of the 2025 campaign at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Purcell missed the cut last week on his season debut at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and will be eager to guarantee some weekend action ahead of the Christmas break.
The 27-year-old earned his DP World Tour card via the Road to Mallorca Rankings on the Challenge Tour in November and is also set to compete in the Dubai Desert Classic in the New Year.
Waterford’s Gary Hurley is also in action.
Royal Dublin’s Max Kennedy may get a maiden DP World Tour bow as a professional but he is fifth on the reserve list.
Ladies European Tour
If anyone needed convincing over the growth of women’s golf in Ireland they need not look further than the Final Stage of Ladies European Tour Qualifying School in Morocco.
Five Irish both professional and amateur are in action looking to secure cards for the 2025 season and join Lauren Walsh on tour.
Sara Byrne was exempt through to the Final Stage following her exploits at LPGA Q-School where she missed out on a card but earned Epson Tour status.
The Dromoland Castle star is joined by Olivia Mehaffey, Anna Foster, Annabel Wilson and amateur Canice Screene.
Screene has made a fast start and is two-under through five holes while Mehaffey is also under par early in her round with Foster level through five holes as Byrne and Wilson begin shortly.
Scoring HERE
The qualifier will take place over 90 holes of stroke play competition with a cut after 72 holes with the top 65 and ties progressing to the final day.
For the first four rounds, competitors will alternate between Royal Golf Marrakech and Al Maaden Golf Marrakech. The final round will be played on Al Maaden Golf Marrakech.
Status received upon successful completion: • Category 12: Qualifying-School Top 20 – Players finishing Nos. 1-20 (and ties) • Category 16: #21-50 Qualifying-School – Players finishing Nos. 21-50 (and ties) • Category 19: Remaining Final Qualifiers – Players finishing outside the Top 50 and ties
Asian Tour
Paul Dunne and Niall Kearney will be looking to secure returns to regular tour golf at the Final Stage of Asian Tour Q-School which takes place tomorrow in Thailand.
Dunne has endured a torrid time since showing signs of early promise in his career.
The Greystones man held off Rory McIlroy to win the British Masters on his way to finishing 16th in the Race to Dubai in 2017. But after suffering a hand injury in 2019 he lost his card after being forced to pull out of the final stage of the DP World Tour Q-School that year.
Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney lost his DP World Tour card two years ago and but has been a serial winner on the PGA in Ireland region and that sharpness has helped him through to the Final Stage in Asia.
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